Plus, when you talk about the bandwagon effect with the Yankees, I saw the same thing happen in Philadelphia as of 2007. People whom I had known for years who had little care for the game of baseball were suddenly wearing Phillies caps everywhere. I knew real Phillies fans too, of course, but the bandwagon effect that engulfed the Yankees in the mid to late ’90s also has played out in south central New Jersey as well. For me, they fail on that level for the same reason as the Yankees.

To me, I look at this logically. If the Phillies win, we will see a whole lot of d***-riding for the Phillies because of their “grit” and because “they play the game the right way,” two talking points I can’t stand because they don’t mean anything. If the Yankees win, there will be d***-riding because of how they had to buy a World Series. I don’t particularly love that talking point either, but it’s easier for me to deal with than the Phillies, which will be out of control, particularly since they will have won two in a row. Plus, I’m not quite ready to live in a world where a guy like Shane Victorino has two World Series rings, and great players like Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez don’t have any. Neither is a particularly appealing thought, but the Yankees winning is something I could handle a little bit more than the Phillies winning.